Outpatient Hemorrhoid Surgery -To What Extent Is Day Surgery Possible?

Abstract

Important issues in outpatient hemorrhoid surgery are intra- and postoperative pain relief and reduction of postoperative bleeding. In particular, because patients leave hospital after the surgery and recuperate at home, delayed hemostatic treatment may result in the worst-case scenario of massive bleeding. Among hemorrhoid treatments, aluminum potassium sulfate tannic acid (ALTA) therapy is the most useful for reducing these risks; injecting ALTA into internal hemorrhoids reduces their size. Pain after the therapy is mild, no analgesics were required in about 40% of our patients, and none of the patients had postoperative massive bleeding. Although ALTA therapy is not applicable to all internal hemorrhoids, if hemorrhoids are treated mainly with ALTA therapy or surgery without incision where possible, it is suggested that all hemorrhoids can be treated with day surgery.